Volleyball Chronicles

LRK and her four teammates LH, DH, NH and MDeP were gracious enough to invite me onto their co-ed indoor volleyball team at the Capital City Y. Note that I fancy myself as "athletic" but probably haven't played volleyball since high school and haven't participated in an organized, competitive fashion since my last game on the diamond at EC. Wii, 5 mile runs and pitch-n-put do not count.

Last week, I joined them for an open gym on the west shore. Open gym... no pressure... it's all in fun, right? Wrong!

Since meeting LRK, I watch a good deal of volleyball. But I was out of my element at the open gym. I was unsure where to be on the court half the time, my serving was horrendous, passing inconsistent and hitting needed major work. Am I missing anything? Oh, and there was this guy there who joined our team and acted like we were playing in the Olympics. He was a bit of a jerk.

I knew I would be pretty raw, but still... Maybe I was slightly arrogant in thinking I could easily assimilate the skills and actions I saw live and on tv into real, physical action. Guess I don't possess that power like Monica Dawson on Heroes.

Anyway, flash forward to Tuesday night. Game on. We regroup at the Y for our first league game. I think the pregame warm-ups helped a lot. In the first game, the other team serves into the net and we're up 1-0 and I'm set to serve. I rattled off about 8-9 straight points and was feeling good from that point forward. The momentum kept building, and I ended up playing exponentially better than at last week's open gym.

We crushed that team like 25-9, 25-12 and 25-16. My serving was pretty good, passing improved, good hustle, better positioning, hitting... still needing considerable work. But I improved, and that is what I aim to continue doing every game.

So now - like Glass, Karily, Walsh, May, Clay Stanley - I play volleyball. Well, maybe not so much like them, but... I am happy and thankful to LRK and those guys for inviting me on the team.

I'm going for the tee shirt!

Brett - we did not act on your pet peeve and celebrate after every point.
Glass - invitation is open for co-ed doubles on Capital City Island next summer.

Final Olympics Hodgepodgery

Congrats to TINWA Who's Now Olympian Kim Glass - and the rest of the US women's volleyball team - on their hard-fought, silver medal-winning effort. The US fell short of the gold this morning v. Brazil, but thanks in part to Glass' Who's Nowsiness, they made it all the way to the gold medal game. That's a world class, Glass!

Note to News 8 nerd Matt Belanger: Glass went to Conestoga Valley High School, not Cumberland Valley like you said Saturday morning, dummy.

+ If/when the Redeem Team wins gold Sunday morning in Beijing, I proclaim the Marvin Gaye/Team USA Nike spot to be the best Nike spot ever. I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier, however, I recently converted Gaye's cool, soulful rendition onto the KreiPod. The Gaye version is unbeatable!

+ Respect to the US women's hoops team for throttling Australia for the gold Saturday. Four consecutive gold medals. 47-1 in Olympic play since 1984. Dominant. Further respect for giving Benedict Arnold Becky Hammon the harsh in the women's hoops semifinal.

+ China and NBC would like you to think the Beijing Games were a glorious success. But in his latest for The Magazine, Rick Reilly would like to point out a few things.

I have no idea what to expect for the Closing Ceremonies. I'm sure they will be cool. Overall, I'll miss the Olympics. But I look forward to getting my life back.

Olympic This!

8-8-08... you might have heard???

We'll have our eyes on TINWA Who's Now Olympians Kim Glass and Hyleas Fountain, the KSU track assistant that's high jumping as well as the Redeem Team, women's volleyball, swimming, track & field and maybe diving.

While most people are poo-pooing the Olympics or simply not giving a Forbidden City, the TINWA household is down for the Games - even planning an opening ceremonies celebration fraught with Chinese food! We're not such big fans of China per se - those smoggy, energy-consuming, human rights-violating commies! But the spirit and competition of the Games outweighs any totalitarian government... or network over-saturation.

Ahead of the Curve

US national women's volleyball player and CV grad Kim Glass was officially named to the US Olympic women's volleyball team Wednesday. Best of luck and bring home the gold in Beijing, Ms. Glass!

Predictably, local outlets Lancaster Newspapers and WGAL 8 jumped on the bandwagon with stories and profiles regarding the lithe, wicked former Buckskin outside hitter. But can you really hop a bandwagon when said bandwagon has already left the hitching post?

Did somebody say "Who's Now!?"

Yes! It was TINWA that first broke Glass (haha) to astute and leading-edge readers over two weeks ago!

Local Olympians - Who's Now

Summer Olympics, Beijing, 8.8.08, NBC family of networks. There's that.

Local NBC affiliate WGAL 8 is providing an assist to NBC Uni's Olympic hyping by running a weekly feature detailing a local person/athlete connected to the the Beijing Games or the Olympics, in general. Thus far, I've seen a segment on a photographer and a few segments on judges or volunteers (old people). Oh, and a 50m three position rifle girl. That's fine and relatively interesting, but who's now, WGAL?!?

I'll tell you who's now... locally:

• Kim Glass, US Women's Volleyball team outside hitter. Ms. Glass, a Conestoga Valley grad, crushed records at the University of Arizona where she was a 3-time All-American. Granted, she hasn't officially been named to the US team yet, but I think she's got a spot.
  


• Hyleas Fountain, heptathlete. Ms. Fountain, who has a pretty cool name, is a Central Dauphin East grad and wound up at the University of Georgia via Barton County Community College. She already earned her spot to compete in Beijing by winning 5 of the 7 heptathlon events at the US Trials while posting a personal best score of 6,667. She's also attempting to qualify for the long jump.

So come August, if you're watching the Olympics, keep your eyes peeled for these two Olympic athletes that WGAL is seemingly ignoring. They're Who's Now!

+ Brenner not seeking re-election! Out in '10. Where does the YC go from here?